So… the other day, midway through binge-watching the first three seasons of “Call the Midwife” (based on a true memoir), on Netflix, it dawned on me that the main character was around the same age as my mother when she became a Registered Nurse and Midwife (at 16) during the identical era with a similar British essence. The only difference was that one was working in England and the other, in Trinidad (and/ or Tobago). It became surreal to recognize the uniforms that were the same as the one pictured of my mother in hers… as well as to recall my mother talking about surgeries where she had to speak up before certain doctors made mistakes on her watch. Oh, and let us not forget the concept of riding around town on a bike to get to patients’ homes to deliver their babies.

My mother would later move to the States, leave surgery to work in drug/ alcohol units (where famous people passed through) before finding her calling as Senior Registered Nurse of Psychiatry.